Your Ideal Nerd

I'm new to the community, and I'm curious to know something that's been on my mind for quite a few year: What is your ideal nerd? When somebody says "nerd"- what immediately pops into ur head, personality-wise?

Everybody's different obviously, which means every nerd is going to be different as well- but at some point, we all have to possess some general, common traits. And after all the places I've been to and all the different nerdy groups that I've either observed or been a part of- I have my idea of what a typical nerd is, but what's yours? What have u noticed about us, that stands out in every encounter you've had with a nerd or somebody's had with u? Was there something u did or said that they might've pointed out as a "nerdy" or "strange" trait?

But I'm curious to know if there's a meeting line between them all, a common trait we all have- a personality trait that we all exhibit and use, something like that. Are we all sarcastic assholes? Are we all shy/afraid to leave the house/dorm? Are we all poor eaters or diet folks? Are we all lacking self-esteem? Things like that- what have u seen or noticed about us, that u can note in general? If somebody asked u what a typical nerd was, what would u describe us as and what they would expect from us?

Here's my ideal concept of what a nerd is/acts like, from what I've seen/found:

We're sometimes super-shy, extremely sarcastic/overly defensive/sensative, extremely frustrated/very easy to set off, somewhat detached from the social stream/lacking proper social skills, somewhat detached from reality/easily prone to denial or depression, either a heavy drinker/drug user or a straight-edge purist (no drinking, smoking, drug usage, or wild partying- stictly family oriented), either very high grades or barely average grades, dress in either very dark clothing or incredibly bright clothing (I've found it's pretty common to come across a metalhead nerd who wears all-black), very tight on forgiveness/redemption (if u piss us off- it's very difficult to make things right, we're not known for giving 2nd chances. From what I've seen at least.), big computer/console gamers, not too big on sports/outdoor activities, extremely territorial (I've noticed that when a group of nerds finds a place to use as a regular hangout location, they will kick anyone out, if they're there during the group's scheduled regular usage time- that happened quite a bit at my college: D & D nights. They would do everything they could to get a lounge or some other space cleared out, whether it was through a staff member or some other means- to have their regular game night. Very protective of gaming rituals.) shameless (Some nerds are completely shameless- they'll wear or do anything in public- they don't care at all), somewhat perverted (we tend to be into some pretty messed up porn LOL), poor diet, either huge readers or barely read at all, not too big on group projects- unless it's with other nerds (and even then, they can be a bit standoff-ish), and somewhat drastically self-expressive (dying your hair green, blue, red, etc; or wearing a pikachu hat everywhere u go, lots of piercings, etc.), and we either go out occassionally or we NEVER go out (we're always at home, playing games, etc).

That's about it. That's what I've learned, up to this point in my life, about us.

So what's ur idea of a nerd- what've u typically seen in us, up until now? I'm just curious to know more about our kind. If u were to run into another nerd- what would u expect? Cuz we've all grown up in different places, experienced different things, processed those experiences differently, and learned from them differently- so ur idea of the typical nerd might be somewhat drastically different from mine. What would u expect if u ran into one of us?

An average IL nerd might be somewhat different from an average Kentucky nerd, or a US nerd might be drastically different from a German nerd, etc.

Plus, times have changed, the world is different nowadays, so if u were to ask ur parents what nerds were like in their day- it could be drastically different from today's nerd.

Again, it's great to meet you all, and I apologize if this seems like a bit of load of BS or whatever you want to process it as- but it's just a question that's been on my mind for a while, and this seems to be one of the best places to find an answer- so let me hear ur ideal concepts of us.

I'm not trying to piss anyone off or start a conflict or anything like that, so if this offends u, I apologize, please restrain urself- I'm just trying to develop a more basic concept of us.

Replies to This Discussion

What I've seen as being examples of nerds used to just be people who enjoyed pop culture too much or enjoyed things that were shunned in pop culture like stories about knights or sci-fi. However, as of late it appears to be a bunch of people trying to fit into a group and define themselves even if it means doing things they don't seem to be interested in. As a result we end up with something like the punk scene where people don't want to do things are aren't nerdy, they talk constantly about how nerdy they are or they call other people poseurs or other obnoxious shit.

That's a good point- very good point. Things have changed so much over time, that with the increase in technology and it's impact of daily life, the stereotypical nerd is quite possibly dead. And I've questioned time and time again: WTF exactly is a nerd anymore? Good point man ^_^

True it would take alot of time and energy to kill somthing so elusive as nerd. Personaly I like the definition used in the vlogs a nerd is anyone who cares about something alot. Thus as long as humans still do things worth caring about the nerd will continue to thrive.

I think this is a very interesting topic. Oddly enough, half of what you described is me and the people I associate with. I go to Michigan Tech (if anyone has heard of it good for you...we're pretty awesome here) and the running "joke" is that everyone who goes here is either downright crazy or just weird. We're a bunch of nerds in the middle of a frozen tundra who are crazy smart and utilize the outdoors. Sorry, shameless plug for Tech. = )

Anyway, my vision or idea of a nerd is someone who is an intellectual. That being said, I see nerds in people who are studying anything from business to engineering. A nerd discusses highly intelligent things yet still maintains almost childish mannerisms. All of my friends are nerds to some extent. I've had conversations ranging from calculus jokes against opposing teams (we have a cheer in the pep band that goes "e to x dx dy, e to x dx, secant cosine tangent sine, 3.14159, pi pi radical mu beat 'em beat 'em MTU"), to the moral compass of society and from the fundamental idea of what reading really is to which Disney, My Little Pony, Transformer, Pillow Pet, etc. is better. A nerd is someone who isn't afraid to challenge views, ideas, etc. and is passionate about what they do.

Sure there is the "stereotypical" nerd, as in lacks social skills, doesn't shower, plays LOL all day and codes at night (oh wait...that's what we call a computer science major here which is so not true by the way as that's a 1/4 of my majors and I am in no way like that), but nerds are so much be diverse, complex, and intricate than that. Nerds are this substance, this thing, that is, to borrow from Hank and John, made of Awesome.

Wonderful topic. When I think of a nerd, I think of someone who is openly thoughtful and pensive. They are intelligent, clever, and very enjoyable to be around. Also, their definition of fun is a lot different than others. A nerd sees learning and thinking in general to be fun. As opposed to the vapid activities of the Decepticons.

yeah i was going to say i see the one shared characteristic of a nerd as HYPER-ENTHUSIASTIC about any given topic/s, usually something intellectual or imaginative, but not always. In that way you can have sports nerds as well, which is not to be mistaken for jock, who is just a dumbo that plays sport, rather than a sports player who really love sports but isn't actually stupid and maybe can quote the entire history of it.

and the thing i noticed about nerds who are into sports is that sometimes LARPing is considered a sport...no i kid, no one larps anymore surely :P

“…because nerds like us are allowed to be unironically enthusiastic about stuff… Nerds are allowed to love stuff, like jump-up-and-down-in-the-chair-can’t-control-yourself love it. Hank, when people call people nerds, mostly what they’re saying is ‘you like stuff.’ Which is just not a good insult at all. Like, ‘you are too enthusiastic about the miracle of human consciousness’.”

and

Saying 'I notice you're a nerd' is like saying, 'Hey, I notice that you'd rather be intelligent than be stupid, that you'd rather be thoughtful than be vapid, that you believe that there are things that matter more than the arrest record of Lindsay Lohan. Why is that?' In fact, it seems to me that most contemporary insults are pretty lame.

I think the first one is the one I relate to the most, but basically, nerds are people who like to think about everything, not just what we're told. We like to learn and be really really over enthusiastic. Often looked down on, we are awesome.